Stockholm (AFP) – Swedish artist Lars Vilks, unharmed Saturday in an attack during a debate on Islam and freedom of expression in Copenhagen, is an agitator who has made a name with a caricature of Muhammad it assumes.
The man of 68 years seems like a real death-defying since, in 2007, he represented the prophet of Islam with a body dog.
This drawing published in a Swedish local paper earned him worldwide fame, but also calls for murder. It was not this claim, it had only participate in an exhibition on the theme of dogs.
His assassination was planned by the American Colleen LaRose, aka “JihadJane”, which allegedly recruited Islamists for this purpose according to the US Justice before being arrested in October 2009.
In May 2010, two young brothers Swedish Kosovar origin are trying to burn down his house with Molotov cocktails. It was not there.
In June 2010, he took a whim during a debate at the Swedish University of Uppsala that turns into boxing.
In September 2011, hundreds of people were evacuated from a building in Gothenburg, Sweden where inaugurated the Biennale of contemporary art: the police have strong reasons to believe that Mr. Vilks will be attacked and arrested four people. The designer, however, had given up coming to the event.
The artist, who no longer move without police protection, obviously takes these threats philosophically. And do not regret what brought him there.
“I try to keep my composure. The bright side is that the people who are after me are probably not equipped, they are amateurs, “he told AFP in 2010.
” I’m not a fanatical racist, I do not have a political position. I am an artist seeking limits, who wants to find out what we can do or not, and where there may be a debate, “he stressed. “I think this is very important if one wants to talk about freedom of expression and Islam and Muslims, to have a real position to have something provocative and transgressive enough to start debate. “
A controversial figure, it is particularly appreciated by all those who perceive Islam as a serious threat.
The famous drawing appears on all web pages of his committee Danish support, which also released its agenda, so that everyone could know that it would be Saturday at the debate on “Art, blasphemy and freedom.”
This support committee had given Charlie Hebdo that awards a prize to those he sees as the greatest defenders of freedom of expression.
On the day of the deadly attack against the French satirical newspaper, January 7, Lars Vilks had entrusted his sadness at the regional newspaper Helsingborgs Dagblad. “We can not give up the freedom of expression. The attack in Paris is unfortunately indicative of the times we live in,” he declared.
Saturday, Swedish security services indicated that they consider the form that should make now its protection.
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